University of Westminster
Enrolment Experience Redesign
Overview
This project focused on improving the online enrolment journey for new students at the University of Westminster. The existing experience was fragmented, confusing and heavily reliant on legacy platforms owned by multiple teams. Students often felt lost, especially when trying to understand their enrolment status or submit key documents.
My role was to lead the UX activities throughout the discovery, ideation and testing phases. I collaborated with content designers, developers and internal stakeholders to identify user pain points, reframe the enrolment journey, and create a more intuitive, supportive experience for incoming students.
What I have done
Led user research with stakeholders and first-year students to uncover enrolment pain points
Mapped the multi-touchpoint journey and prioritised areas we could influence
Collaborated with content designers to create new pages and simplified instructions
Redesigned the enrolment flow and terminology based on testing insights
Initiated creation of support content including video tutorials and downloadable assets
Ran multiple rounds of usability testing to validate key tasks and reduce friction
Impact
Key page engagement:
Page views up by 23%
Engagement rate up to 42%
Customer service tickets:
Total tickets reduced from 1,093 (2022) to 865 (2023).
“Enrolment” mentions dropped from 65 → 38 (−41%).
Discovery
Understanding the existing system, user frustrations and constraints
Activities
Conducted interviews with stakeholders and subject matter experts
Ran research sessions with first-year students who had recently completed enrolment
Mapped the full journey from offer to campus arrival
Identified points owned by third parties or systems we couldn’t change directly
Highlights
Challenge
The term “Enrolment” was misleadingly used from the first step, leading to confusion when students later received messages saying “You are not enrolled”.
Uploading a student photo was a surprisingly high-friction point, with little guidance and inconsistent system behaviour.
We had limited control over several key systems and platforms, which were outdated and fragmented. Students experienced the journey as one continuous experience, but ownership was scattered behind the scenes.
Solution
We prioritised the areas we could influence directly - mainly the University website - and used clear, supportive language and structure to cover over deeper systemic issues. Collaboration with content designers was key to making complex backend systems feel simple and human to the user.
Ideation
Clarifying the journey, reducing jargon and setting expectations
Activities
Restructured the enrolment journey into a 3-phase model:
"Submit your information"
"We’ll check your details"
"Collect your student ID and attend induction"
Removed technical jargon and clarified enrolment statuses
Produced simplified guidance for the photo upload process
Created new pages and modular content blocks tested across the journey
Highlights
Shifted focus from internal system language to user centric
Added clarity on what happens next at each phase, reducing uncertainty and frustration
Challenge
Students were dropping off or becoming anxious due to unclear statuses and contradictory instructions. Terminology like “Not enrolled” after they had completed the first step caused confusion.
Solution
Tested and introduced a phased structure with supporting content to show where users were in the process
Clarified enrolment status labels and linked them to user actions, making the journey feel progress-based and logical
Prototype and testing
Validating terminology, clarity and task completion
Activities
Ran moderated usability sessions with students using new content and flows
Tested 5 key user tasks:
Understanding the process as a whole
Uploading pre-enrolment data
Receiving status updates and uploading missing documents
On-campus registration
Attending welcome events
Refined the content and interaction flow until task errors dropped to acceptable levels
Highlights
One of the main sticking points was the photo upload, especially regarding image sizing and strict criteria
Challenge
The system accepted only very specific file sizes and gave no useful error messages. Many students didn’t have access to tools to resize or crop photos appropriately.
Solution
We created a clear, step-by-step guide with screenshots, a downloadable Photoshop template, and a video tutorial. We also provided an example image that could be reused and easily adapted.
Solution and impact
Validating terminology, clarity and task completion
Activities
Ran moderated usability sessions with students using new content and flows
Tested 5 key user tasks:
Understanding the process as a whole
Uploading pre-enrolment data
Receiving status updates and uploading missing documents
On-campus registration
Attending welcome events
Refined the content and interaction flow until task errors dropped to acceptable levels
Highlights
One of the main sticking points was the photo upload, especially regarding image sizing and strict criteria
Challenge
The system accepted only very specific file sizes and gave no useful error messages. Many students didn’t have access to tools to resize or crop photos appropriately.
Solution
We created a clear, step-by-step guide with screenshots, a downloadable Photoshop template, and a video tutorial. We also provided an example image that could be reused and easily adapted.
Impact
+23%
Pageviews
42%
Avg Page Engagement rate
-21%
Enrolmment enquiries received by customer services